Obama Begins the Conquest of the Brain: Good News for Psychiatry

The United States is about to conquer the last unknown continent: the brain. It’s customary for the newly elected or reelected American president to propose new frontiers to be explored. This is exactly what Obama has done by announcing his intention to discover the secrets of the brain.

New Scientific Challenge after Conquering Space

The United States is approaching the brain as they once approached their conquest of space. It sees the brain as a scientific, human and economic challenge. The idea has just the right amount of romance to provide intrigue. I believe that it lacks neither accuracy nor interest, however: To understand the biological and cerebral mechanisms at the origin of behaviors; to know where addictions and the most banal habits originate; to see a brain think and even dream — it’s with these challenges that adventure, science fiction and research meet.

Today, we are starting to identify some molecular causes for the diseases of the brain. This might be the case for Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy. We are far from succeeding in bringing together our understanding of the emotions, thoughts and the workings of the brain, however.

We are still in an era where ideologies clash, some believing completely in “affect” or the unconscious, others in everything cerebral. Reality will undoubtedly be at the heart of it all. Freud foresaw this in one of his first famous texts, “Project for a Scientific Psychology” (“Entwurf einer Psychologie.”) He anticipated the time when science, in particular the science of the brain, could join that of the unconscious and of psychology. His article dates back to 1895 and has inspired many debates, but not enough research.

Being Able to Treat Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s (for Glory and the Money)

It is in this context that Barack Obama is directing the activity of his country’s scientists toward the decoding of the human brain. After investing much of its research potential in genetics, the United States will now work on neurons. First of all, it expects to treat diseases located in the brain, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Anyone who researches behavioral problems, addiction, psychiatry and psychology hopes that research in these fields will also advance under the American impetus.

Let’s hope we’re not mistaken. It is not a question of an altruistic project. What President Obama says is correct — every dollar invested in genetic research brought in $140 to the American economy. He hopes to earn just as much money and glory with his work on the brain, while scientists hope to receive $3 billion over 10 years. It’s up to them to find treatments or explanations which will justify and repay these subsidies.

The prime objective is to comprehensively describe the functioning of all the zones of the brain, whether it’s the neurons or the neurotransmitters. Those who are most optimistic hope to understand, or start to understand, some of the reasons for autism and schizophrenia. Let’s reassure those who are the most anxious. This research, even if it succeeds, will not deny the importance of the emotions and the unconscious.

This observatory of the brain, which will look something like an astronomical observatory, is likely to produce many surprising discoveries. Let’s hope that Barack Obama’s lesson can be heard on this side of the Atlantic and that our decision makers will agree that each euro invested in researching a universe as complex as the brain ends up bringing in 150 times what’s been spent!